CASABLANCA

view of Casablanca, courtesy, Berber Dream Tours

Casablanca, from the movie of the same name, is the largest city of Arab-occupied Morocco as well as in the Arab-occupied Maghreb (North Africa). It is located in the Chaouia Plain, the Tamasna, in the central-western part of Morocco along the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Wadi Buskura. Casablanca it is the eighth-largest urban area in the “Arab world” and is also Morocco's chief port and economic and business center, and one of the largest financial centers in Africa.

In approximately the seventh century BCE, this area was settled by various Berber tribes who coalesced to form a settlement they called “Anfa”. Anfa was later used as a port by the Phoenicians and then the Romans and became prosperous because of its international trade as well as its fertile hinterland. From Anfa, began the expeditions of Juba II, king of Numidia and Mauretania in the service of Rome, to discover the Canary and Madeira islands off the west African coast. Juba was succeeded by Ptolemy of Mauretania under whose reign, the kingdom was officially annexed by Roman emperor Caligula thus incorporating Anfa into the Roman Empire.

Early in the 7^th century, a large Berber tribe, the Barghawata from the Masmuda confederacy, settled in the Tamasna Plain between the rivers Bou Regreg to the north and Oum er-Rbia to the south. A century later, it was conquered by the Arabs, as was all of North Africa. But in contrast to the Levant, Arab colonization and subjugation of North Africa was a very slow process, especially when confronting formidable Berber warriors. In 744, the Barghawata, following the revolt against the Arab Umayyads, established itself as an independent kingdom in Tamasna and made Anfa its capital. It remained an independent kingdom until it was conquered by the Berber Almoravids in 1068. Under the succeeding dynasty, the Almohads, also Berber, Sultan Abd al-Mu'min, finally drove the Barghawata out of Tamasna in 1149, and replaced them with Bedouin Arab tribes, notably Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym. Eventually, they would mix with the remaining local Berbers which, unfortunately, led to the beginning of widespread Arabization. During the 14th century, under the Merinids, a Zenata Berber dynasty, Anfa rose in importance as a port, and became an independent city in the early part of the following century. The last of the Merinids was ousted by a popular revolt in 1465.

Anfa suffered major damage during the raids and conquest by the Portuguese in the 15th century, but the Portuguese soon rebuilt it, and in the process, changed its name to Casa Branca meaning 'white house'. The present name, the Spanish, “Casa Blanca”, was adopted when the Kingdom of Portugal came under Spanish control through the Iberian Union. But the town couldn’t survive the Portuguese or Spanish and it soon became an abandoned city until 1770 when it was rebuilt by Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah from the Arab Alouite dynasty who was known to be friendly to the Berbers. Under his rule, the city was repopulated by Chleuh Berbers from the region of Essaouira and the environs of Meknes. Today, the name “Anfa” survives as a neighborhood of the present city, located on the site of the original town.

 

Before the beginning of the 20^th century, another wave of Chleuh arrived in Casablanca from the Souss and Draa regions to the south. This group would become famous for the grocery businesses they developed.

For many years, especially since independence in 1956, the Berbers in Casablanca, as with Morocco as a whole, were forced to undergo an Arabization process by the Arab occupiers, requiring them to abandon their indigenous Berber identities including their language which was deemed illegal. As far as Casablanca was concerned, this resulted in limited contacts with the native-born, Arabic-speaking, urban dwellers as migrations to the city which took place in the 50s and 60s, originated from the Berber-speaking rural hinterlands. Recently, the anti-Berber restrictions were eased and the Berber language was given official recognition. But in the end, the indigenous people still remained under Arab occupation, with all that that entails, and unfortunately at present, they have no choice but to live with it.

According to the 2019 census, the city has a population of about 3.71 million in the urban area and over 4.27 million in the Greater Metropolitan area. In spite of the Arab occupation, there is, nevertheless, an exceedingly strong Berber presence. There are several Berber tourist companies located throughout the city and some of the main indigenous sites might include -- the Berber Mosque; the gate Bab Marrakesh, so called because the road to Marrakesh starts from there; the Abderrahman Slaoui Museum which contains a fine Berber jewelry section; and the old medina, built in the 19^th century as a marketplace, filled with labyrinthine narrow streets and cafés, now a residential area.